October 2021 - Arihant Waterslides
4 Strategies Water Parks are Applying to Make the Most of Revenge Tourism

4 Strategies Water Parks are Applying to Make the Most of Revenge Tourism

The state government of Maharashtra will open up dry amusement parks and cinemas on October 22, signaling the final phase before normalcy.

Though the decision on water parks has been deferred, over the last three months, as lockdowns were lifted and second vaccinations were taken, the general mood is that of optimism—the shadow of the coronavirus is slowly but surely fading.

The global attractions, travel, and tourism sectors are looking at positive movement in the next few months as people take “revenge” on the months of social distancing decreed by the darker circumstances of the last year.

This social phenomenon is loosely known as “revenge tourism” and its emergence entails that park owners and stakeholders have a foothold to gain when conditions return to normal, and patrons overwork the turnstiles.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a topsy-turvy ride for park owners and stakeholders over the last 19 months, but many of them made use of the downtime to devise strategies to maximize the pent-up demand at this crucial time.

Finding Fruitful Partnerships in the Vicinity


There is a level playing field, as far as how the pandemic affected business. Every business has received some form of negative movement in the last 19 months, either due to a shortage of supply or demand. With that in mind, it is important for water park investors and owners to take courage, finding solidarity with other similarly-affected businesses with similar customers.

The crux of the matter is to understand which businesses outside your vertical share the same customer base with you. For water parks, this is usually hotels, restaurants, and other dry amusement parks and gaming arcades. The most successful water parks have continued to forge a strong network with these businesses in their vicinity, creating personalized offers and packages that the common customers find hard to refuse.

For example, a family of visiting tourists can make a special deal at their hotel, which includes a day at the nearby water park. Customers love convenient deals that they can fit within their itineraries, and this is made possible when venues are close by!  

To take the thought further, travel agencies are another great resource for water parks. Travel advisors, now back in business, will be ready to sweeten deals for their customers, and you can get in touch with them to link your water park to their busy, online platforms.

Removing Waiting Times for Entry, Refreshment, & Merchandise


What are the three biggest sources of revenue for a water park?

The money paid for tickets, the refreshments, and the merchandise, the latter which includes products like apparel, toys, and swimming equipment.

What are the biggest deterrents to these sources of revenue? Queue waiting times. When customers learn that they must wait in long queues to get their products, they decide against a purchase. Water park owners have learned to value their customers’ time.

To solve this problem, they have devised digital mediums to make orders and purchases from everything from tickets to aerated beverages. We had outlined several methods on how water parks do this in a previous blog post. For easy reference QR access/purchase codes, self-service kiosks, and well-integrated park management software can make a huge difference.

Designing Exciting Multipurpose Water Attractions


During the downtime, managers and marketers identified that up-gradation of the ride experiences offered at the park would create powerful incentives for patrons returning post-pandemic. More exciting rides usually entail bigger returns. We had discussed nuances of how and why multipurpose attractions can result in superior engagement in a previous blog post. This is a tried-and-tested strategy.

The long and short of it is that water parks gain popularity from a particularly memorable ride—through word of mouth, video marketing, or advertisements—and this gives them the leeway to create pricing power gains. To make up for reduced visitor capacities, a norm during and since the pandemic, if water park administrators play their cards correctly, designing imaginative water play structures with ample space for hundreds of patrons to enjoy simultaneously, the reputation of the park rises, and they will get away with increasing the price of the tickets, without losing customers.

Staying Sensitive to Seasonal and Immediate Needs

One of the most immediate refrains in the last 19 months of COVID-19 has been the danger of indoor environments. The virus is transmitted more easily in indoor environments, where air circulates back and forth. Park owners are latching onto their parks’ outdoor nature, broadcasting how their establishments are safer relative to cinemas, air travel, hotels, and other entertainment options. And with the commonality of digital payments there is rarely a requirement to stand in queues for tickets, food, and beverage.

The other immediate reason for water park attendance is seasonal. While the cold is a deterrent to most water park activity, hot weather tends to cause a higher ticket load. In the middle of India, where the month of October can be unbearably hot and humid, water parks can look to improve their profits by emphasizing on how their patrons can beat the heat. Seasonal packages and ticket tiers can be devised to make the choice more affable for denizens.

For those parties looking to understand how to maximize profits, if you want business and management advice on the subject, you can always contact and consult with a water park equipment supplier like Arihant Water Slides.

How Multi-Purpose Attractions can Help Boost your Revenue

How Multi-Purpose Attractions can Help Boost your Revenue

In the world of entrepreneurship, there is a saying: “Money is always eager and ready to work for anyone who is ready to employ it.”

Within the water park industry, this is no different.

Money drives the entertainment value of the water park experience, especially when invested into consumer-sensitive design.

And this is most relevant for designing the water attractions.

These categorized attractions can be sprinkler dance areas, mat rider slides, body slides, pendulum slides, wave pools, lazy rivers, and a central, multi-purpose attraction that has a little bit of everything in it. The latter element is what can make your revenues take a slow, fruitful hike into the stratosphere. In this post, we discuss how using a multi-purpose water attraction helps the cause.

Maximizes Liveliness & Customer Satisfaction

The difference between a single-function water ride and a multi-function water attraction is that there will simply be more things to do, and more space to do it in. Central, multi-purpose structures are mixed-programmed. They could include moderately thrilling slides, high-octane slides, eateries, children’s play areas, pool areas, dance sprinkler areas, and much more.

Now, this does not entail that you do not invest in excellent single-function water attractions! Single-function slides are also an essential part of the whole, allowing greater diversity in park usage. You can separate rides of varying thrill factors from each other: your tailspin, vertical drop, and rapid descent slides can be kept away from your children’s slides.

But a central, unifying area is what will keep your visitors satisfied on all counts, and that space is where you will find that elusive, magnetic bustle that is so enticing to visitors in the water park. Over here, you will tend to find the most visitors. Hence, when this space is designed well, it will ensure satisfied, repeat visitors, increasing revenue in the long run.

Keeps People of all Age Groups Together

Given that a multi-purpose attraction is built with everyone in mind, there is little that can go wrong in terms of dissatisfaction. There will always be one aspect of the mixed-program space that will please one age group or the other.

Guest personae range over the entire age spectrum. Many guests come in groups or families with the intention of spending time together. A unifying, multi-purpose water attraction allows them to partake in fun activities in close proximity to each other. A grandfather can play with his grandson on an attraction that caters to the interests of both. And that is what makes this experience unique. The communal aspect, where age groups mingle in easy harmony, is another major factor that drives repeat visits to a water park.

Localizes the Experience in Recognizable Stories

Often, water park design directors rely on the cultural elements of the locality in which the water park is going to be constructed. They will often be instrumental in designing and constructing water attractions that are themed on local legends, literature, ballads, occupations, and history.

The place where this can come out the most is the multi-purpose water attraction—Given its highly communal aspect. If the brand narrative of the water piggybacks on the cultural value of these stories, it can create a larger-than-life experience for the consumers in the catchment area, as well as tourists and outsiders who may hear of its unique themes from online travel agents (TripAdvisor, etc.) and social media.

Storytelling through the language of your water structures is one of the subtler aspects of boosting revenue. For example, investors planning to build a water park coastal town with a local history of pirates can create an aura of mystery and allure to their establishment by unifying the masterplan with something like Arihant Water Park Equipment’s Treasure Ship – Deep Sea. A high-quality attraction like this can also give you the space to increase your gross retail price on tickets, to improve profit margins.

More Merchandising Opportunities

On the back of an excellent brand narrative like the above, your water park will earn maximized revenue opportunities no matter the season. Why? There can be merchandising, souvenirs, and giveaways designed around the narrative: soft toys, t-shirts, swimming costumes, bags, shoes, and much more.

The idea is to persuade the audience to buy these products after their exciting day at the water park. To anchor their experience to a physical object, they will want to buy something that is instantly memorable. This merchandise will work for you even after visitors purchase it, creating brand mindshare wherever it is taken. The water park’s main distribution channels—online travel agents, hotel concierges, ticket aggregators, resellers—can also sell some of this at commission rates. In short, merchandising multiplies the reach of your marketing.

In short, an instantly recognizable, multi-purpose water attraction not only maximizes entertainment for your visitors, but also maximizes your outreach, marketing, and advertising. Investors and stakeholders in the water park industry would do well to ensure that there are at least one of these elements in the masterplan of their park!

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